To prevent the accumulation of leaves and other debris from clogging the gutters attached to the facia board just below the sloping roof of houses, conventional pre-cut mesh screen panels made out of perforated sheet metal or molded plastic with drain openings can be purchased from hardware stores. These panels are then mounted in the upper portion of the gutters extending around the house. While cleaning the debris accumulated on top of these screen panels, some of these panels may become loose and fall to the ground or may have blown away during a bad storm. Cleaning gutters can be a hazardous activity as reaching or stretching is frequently necessary and special effort is required to install, remount or reposition the screen panels at times.
There are many devices are available on the market to keep gutters free of debris. There are permamently mounted screens directly attached to the gutters but they still require cleaning and are expensive to install and service as sheet metal specialists are needed. Specially hinged metal mesh panels have been developed as well as complex clamping systems but they present difficulty for their users to maintain these systems as they endanger themselves as some intricate work is frequently required while they are on top of ladders in order to be able to service these systems. To install these devices is very difficult as the fastening means and the fitting of the screening material require considerable effort, all which has to be done while standing precariously on a ladder.